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YOUR WASHINGTON AND YOU VOLUME 5 Number 42
Weekly News Letter
From Office of Karl Mundt For release - December 23 or after.
DIES COMMITTEE AND CIVIL SERVICE. Recent revision of the instructions issued by the
Civil Service Commission by which its examiners were requested not to ask job applicants certain questions about their association with organizations and groups held
by the Attorney General's office to be subversive, has caused a storm of protest in
Congress. Into the lap of the Dies Committee has fallen the charges that the increased
laxity in screening job applicants concerning their connections with groups identified
with the Communist Party, the German American Bund, or Fascist organizations may result in employing people with un-American back-grounds in Government positions. Rep.
Fred Busbey of Illinois, formerly with the Americanization Committee of The American
Legion, has been leading the critics of the new Administrative order.
As a member of the Dies Committee, Congressman Mundt expects to inquire closely
into the new leniency order from the standpoint of its application to the restrictive
provision which was written into the Selective Service Act as the Mundt Amendment.
Mr. Mundt's amendment which is now Paragraph i, Section 8 of Public Law No. 783, 76th
Congress, reads as follows: "It is the expressed policy of the Congress that whenever
a vacancy is caused in the employment rolls of any business or industry by reason of
induction into the service of the United States of an employee pursuant to the provisions of this Act such vacancy shall not be filled by any person who is a member of
the Communist Party, or the German-American Bund." It is important that the Federal
Government does not do by laxity what it prevents private citizens from doing by law.
-o-
THERE are now 59,982 veterans of World War I between
the ages of 60 and 64 years; 32,157 between 65 and
74 and there are 33,831 veterans of World War I who
are more than 75 years of age.
-o-
MASTER PIECE OF UNDER STATEMENT! On the Senate floor, recently, Senator Cotton Ed
Smith delivered himself of a statement which bids fair to rank as an all time high in
Congressional understatement. Said the Senator on Page 10640 of The Record, "I want
to nominate Harry Byrd for President right now, and call on the Southern States to
organize a Democratic Party and let us try to get one decent President. I have been
here with five Presidents and a piece - - and a sixth; five Presidents and the thing
we have got. Yes I have. I have been here with six Presidents and I have enjoyed
being a Senator until this miserable thing came along - - I mean this miserable party,
I want it definitely and distinctly understood - I am afraid Senators will infer it -
that I am not a New Dealer."
Senator Smith is a South Carolina Democrat, has served in the Senate longer than
any other sitting member. His wrath was stirred by a statement made by Senator Guffey
(Pennsylvania New Dealer) following Senate action on the soldier vote bill. Senator
Bailey, North Caroline, and Senator Byrd, Virginia, also gave Senator Guffey a verbal
spanking on the Senate Floor after his attack on Southern Democrats and Congressman
Rankin of Mississippi over on the House side added more fuel to the fire. None,
however, surpassed the vigor of Cotten Ed Smith in his "hint" that he was no longer a
New Dealer!
-o-
MERRY CHRISTMAS. Since this will be the last
appearance of Your Washington And You before
Christmas this is to extend to all our readers
best wishes for the holiday season and earnest
hopes that 1944 will bring victory to our
colors and peace to all the World.
-o-
THE ALL-AMERICAN "GWIBIT". In a speech on the House floor last week, Congressman Mundt
stated that a new Gremlin had come to plague the Capital in the form of what he defined as a "Gwibit" - "meaning a bureaucrat who 'NOS' a good idea when he sees one
and whose resistance to progress is excelled only by his proclivity for procrastination.
Mundt said, "There are both good and bad bureaucrats. Bad bureaucrats are congenital members of the Guild of Washington Incompetent Bureaucratic Idea Throatcutter
from which the Gwibit term is coined and to which they pay only PASSIVE loyalty
because it is against the ethics of a Gwibit to be ACTIVE in anything. A Gwibitzer,
however, must not be confused with a Kibitzer since the latter merely stands on the
side lines and watches while the former sits in the path of progress and trips those
who would traverse it."
"What is needed", he said, "is an American Association for Eliminating Gwibits.
The best place to stop a Gwibit is close to home by refraining from delegating to
Washington the solution of problems which can be handled locally. All citizens can
help in breaking the Bad American Habit of asking Washington to do for them what they
should do for themselves and in so-doing they automatically become members of the
American Association for Eliminating Gwibits.

The work from which this copy was made did not include a formal copyright notice. This work may be protected by U.S. copyright law (Title 17, United States Code), which governs reproduction, distribution, public display, and other uses of protected works. Some uses may be legal with permission from the copyright holder, if the copyright on the work has expired, or if the use is fair use or compliance with the law. All use of DLSD material and content, whether utilized under fair use or used with written permission to publish, must name the Karl E. Mundt Historical & Educational Foundation, Karl E. Mundt Library, Dakota State University, as the original source for the material.

The work from which this copy was made did not include a formal copyright notice. This work may be protected by U.S. copyright law (Title 17, United States Code), which governs reproduction, distribution, public display, and other uses of protected works. Some uses may be legal with permission from the copyright holder, if the copyright on the work has expired, or if the use is fair use or compliance with the law. All use of DLSD material and content, whether utilized under fair use or used with written permission to publish, must name the Karl E. Mundt Historical & Educational Foundation, Karl E. Mundt Library, Dakota State University, as the original source for the material.

Date Digitized

2012-10-02

Transcript

YOUR WASHINGTON AND YOU VOLUME 5 Number 42
Weekly News Letter
From Office of Karl Mundt For release - December 23 or after.
DIES COMMITTEE AND CIVIL SERVICE. Recent revision of the instructions issued by the
Civil Service Commission by which its examiners were requested not to ask job applicants certain questions about their association with organizations and groups held
by the Attorney General's office to be subversive, has caused a storm of protest in
Congress. Into the lap of the Dies Committee has fallen the charges that the increased
laxity in screening job applicants concerning their connections with groups identified
with the Communist Party, the German American Bund, or Fascist organizations may result in employing people with un-American back-grounds in Government positions. Rep.
Fred Busbey of Illinois, formerly with the Americanization Committee of The American
Legion, has been leading the critics of the new Administrative order.
As a member of the Dies Committee, Congressman Mundt expects to inquire closely
into the new leniency order from the standpoint of its application to the restrictive
provision which was written into the Selective Service Act as the Mundt Amendment.
Mr. Mundt's amendment which is now Paragraph i, Section 8 of Public Law No. 783, 76th
Congress, reads as follows: "It is the expressed policy of the Congress that whenever
a vacancy is caused in the employment rolls of any business or industry by reason of
induction into the service of the United States of an employee pursuant to the provisions of this Act such vacancy shall not be filled by any person who is a member of
the Communist Party, or the German-American Bund." It is important that the Federal
Government does not do by laxity what it prevents private citizens from doing by law.
-o-
THERE are now 59,982 veterans of World War I between
the ages of 60 and 64 years; 32,157 between 65 and
74 and there are 33,831 veterans of World War I who
are more than 75 years of age.
-o-
MASTER PIECE OF UNDER STATEMENT! On the Senate floor, recently, Senator Cotton Ed
Smith delivered himself of a statement which bids fair to rank as an all time high in
Congressional understatement. Said the Senator on Page 10640 of The Record, "I want
to nominate Harry Byrd for President right now, and call on the Southern States to
organize a Democratic Party and let us try to get one decent President. I have been
here with five Presidents and a piece - - and a sixth; five Presidents and the thing
we have got. Yes I have. I have been here with six Presidents and I have enjoyed
being a Senator until this miserable thing came along - - I mean this miserable party,
I want it definitely and distinctly understood - I am afraid Senators will infer it -
that I am not a New Dealer."
Senator Smith is a South Carolina Democrat, has served in the Senate longer than
any other sitting member. His wrath was stirred by a statement made by Senator Guffey
(Pennsylvania New Dealer) following Senate action on the soldier vote bill. Senator
Bailey, North Caroline, and Senator Byrd, Virginia, also gave Senator Guffey a verbal
spanking on the Senate Floor after his attack on Southern Democrats and Congressman
Rankin of Mississippi over on the House side added more fuel to the fire. None,
however, surpassed the vigor of Cotten Ed Smith in his "hint" that he was no longer a
New Dealer!
-o-
MERRY CHRISTMAS. Since this will be the last
appearance of Your Washington And You before
Christmas this is to extend to all our readers
best wishes for the holiday season and earnest
hopes that 1944 will bring victory to our
colors and peace to all the World.
-o-
THE ALL-AMERICAN "GWIBIT". In a speech on the House floor last week, Congressman Mundt
stated that a new Gremlin had come to plague the Capital in the form of what he defined as a "Gwibit" - "meaning a bureaucrat who 'NOS' a good idea when he sees one
and whose resistance to progress is excelled only by his proclivity for procrastination.
Mundt said, "There are both good and bad bureaucrats. Bad bureaucrats are congenital members of the Guild of Washington Incompetent Bureaucratic Idea Throatcutter
from which the Gwibit term is coined and to which they pay only PASSIVE loyalty
because it is against the ethics of a Gwibit to be ACTIVE in anything. A Gwibitzer,
however, must not be confused with a Kibitzer since the latter merely stands on the
side lines and watches while the former sits in the path of progress and trips those
who would traverse it."
"What is needed", he said, "is an American Association for Eliminating Gwibits.
The best place to stop a Gwibit is close to home by refraining from delegating to
Washington the solution of problems which can be handled locally. All citizens can
help in breaking the Bad American Habit of asking Washington to do for them what they
should do for themselves and in so-doing they automatically become members of the
American Association for Eliminating Gwibits.